Val Saunders from The Thirteenth Series and Guest
by GLTwynham
Summary: I'm the author of The Thirteenth Series and this fan-fiction is a gift to my readers. I wanted to bring a few of my favourite characters together with one of the deadliest villains! I really hope you enjoy it. I would say that you would need to have read The Thirteenth and The Turncoats to know the characters from my books. So to anyone finding this thanks for all your support.


The Metal Machines.

Val Saunders eyes adjusted to the lack of light; she hadn't expected to arrive in darkness. She still found it odd when they arrived on a planet in the dead of night, having left the Prison with bright morning sunshine. Zac was grumbling in the background about how she'd rushed him, and that he still had to calibrate his watch.

"Fine, just tell us what we need to know…" she pacified him, whilst straining her eyes, trying to make out as much of her surroundings as possible. There were metal walls enclosing them; not endless towering ones like the prison, but tall enough to make her crane to see. Tapping her boot on the floor, she could tell it was made of a similar material; it resembled an enormous container, a solid cell. It felt void of life, no sounds to lead her to believe there was anything living here - as she laboured to see, she found herself blinking uncontrollably as a soft breeze caught her face, leaving a tinny taste in the air which caught in her mouth and throat. There must be some form of ventilation; they were definitely breathing oxygen, even thought it was a little stale, "…why exactly are we here?"

"The Prison's been receiving frequent signals from this planet, which has drawn the attention of the High Judges. A large amount of uncategorised energy has been building in its core. Enough to show on our grids," he tapped away on his screen.

Val raised her hand, creating a small ball of fire in her palm. "What on Earth?!" she exclaimed. They stood together for a moment, opened mouthed, trying to comprehend the extent of the menacing shadows.

"Val this is not what I expected, I think we need back-up." Zac's words were stiff, like he was afraid something or someone would hear him, and there was clearly nothing with a pulse living here, or were these things alive?

"I agree and if I wasn't stuck to the spot, with a weird sensation of fear running down both my legs, I would run." she whispered, pressing at her earpiece. "Jason, can you hear me?"

"Hello mate, need me already?" the familiar voice of sarcasm answered.

"Yes - unless you have something better to do?" She replied.

"Why the stress? What going on?" Jason knew her well enough to note worry, even in her banter.

"Seems whoever we've interrupted building their 'energy ball' has a thing for machines, and lots of them." Val allowed her fire to extend a little further. There was no movement, but she wouldn't leave them open to the chance of anything jumping out from behind those weird things. "Jason, can you tell us anything about this planet's history?"

Before she could get a response from him; "Incoming!" Zac warned, moving a few feet to the left.

The noise inside the metal casket reverberated, allowing it to become painfully loud and Val was forced to jam her hands hard over her ears to block it out. The franticness of the whirling and buzzing was making her judgment of exactly where it would arrive impossible. Then, just a few feet away, something started to appear - then disappear. "Ready yourself for battle." Zac warned her. "I can't get a lock on what's coming, so let's expect the worst." Val extended her sword. Her fire ball, now the size of a volley ball, floated just above her hand.

The object finally came to a standstill and Val's eyes scanned it rapidly up and down. "Ok this is far too weird." She extinguished her fire and approached the new arrival.

"Please tell me you know what this is?" Zac quizzed.

"Funnily I do, but I have no idea why one has just arrived half way across the galaxy." She was now close enough to touch the object; her sword retracted as she reached for it. Making contact with its wooden door, she ran her hand down towards the handle. Wrapping her fingers around its cool metal she pulled tentatively. Nothing happened, she jerked a little harder but it gave the same negative response. "Jason, it's locked can you tell if there's anything inside?"

"What's... go… ing... o..." He became static in her ear.

"Jason…, Jason…, we've lost our signal." she informed Zac who was now walking the perimeter of the object scanning it.

"Is this an Earth object? It looks like your primitive style. I have nothing on record."

"Oh it's definitely from Earth, but what's it doing here? And why here, with all these other objects? You know, they look a little bit like large metal traffic cones with lumps." Val left the door and headed back towards the metal objects that had originally brought them to the surface of the planet.

"I have no life forms here; are you just going to leave it?" Zac asked seeming agitated at her skipping from one thing to another. "Val, focus!" he protested.

"Yes, focus." a man's voice caught them both by surprise, his head popping out of the door that had previously been locked. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he pointed at the metal object in front of Val, "grave danger mixed with a little madness could follow." His inappropriately timed smile was most infectious.

"Who are you?" her sword was extended again.

"I'm a friend, that's the first thing you need to know Val," he raised his hands in submission.

She paused, "How do you know my name? And what's that thing in your hand?"

Zac joined her as they both stood together blocking the man. "Val, I have nothing on him, he has no record from the Prison or Earth. I say you arrest him and ask questions later."

In some completely inappropriate way, Val just wanted to laugh; he was dressed like a 1950s professor, wearing a ridiculous dicky-bow tie and tweed jacket. "Not just yet," her inquisitive side made her want to know more about this man - who knew her name.

"I understand you're confused and that's perfectly logical in this situation, however I would like to point out that you have arrived on the planet of Skaro; those odd looking things over there are Daleks and I'm here to make sure you don't make the same mistake twice, and this…" he waved a small pen shaped device, "…is a sonic screwdriver," he beamed and sauntered confidently past her and Zac, who watched on in bewilderment.

"What do you mean the same mistake twice? What have I done before, for this to be the second time?" She wasn't stupid, she knew time travel was possible, she'd been skipping around for a few hundred years now, but she remembered every arrest, every charge, and she'd never met this eccentric man or his blue phone box. He gave an odd skip towards the thing he had called a Dalek and kicked it. Its metal body complained by shuddering to the left, like a lifeless dodgem.

"They're dead at the moment, but you, my friend are the cog in the wheel that brings them back to life." He aimed the thing he had called a sonic screwdriver at something that resembled a toilet plunger sticking out of the metal Dalek. His gadget buzzed noisily; then he shook it and gazed into the end, huffing in annoyance.

"How? And what life – they're machines." Val asked.

"Well, now, if I told you that then I would be changing the future," he scratched his head, ruffling his brown mop of hair, "but then I guess I am already. Odd isn't it? This time travel malarkey." He swivelled to face her. "You're just going to have to trust me now aren't you?" He straightened his dicky-bow.

"Why would I do that? I have no memories of you and what if this machine here is the innocent one, and you're the one trying to create the energy surge? You just appeared out of no-where. You know my name and seem to be ordering me to do something. These things you call Dalek haven't done anything wrong at the moment. I have been taught that everyone deserves a fair trial."

"You were this stubborn the first time," he shuffled around making her turn to keep her eyes on him, "Val, I hope you don't mind me saying, for someone of your age…" he raised an eyebrow at her, "…you should have learnt by now that things aren't always what they seem, but your gut instinct is always right. Now look around you and tell me again that you think these things are on the side of good?" He took her wrist and held it up. Pointing his screwdriver at her hand, a flame skipped to its command. No-one had ever done this to her before. The more he pointed the higher the flame got until Val could see the extent of the gathering. "Now tell me why would you bring so many Daleks together if it wasn't to create an army? This is not a nanny convention."

Val pulled her wrist and the man let her go without a struggle. "So what is it I did to cause such a problem?" she extinguished her hand.

Zac interrupted, "we have a problem."

"He said that last time as well," The man chirped.

"Talk to me?" Val tried to ignore him and focus on her Hunter.

"The energy signature seems to be growing exponentially, faster than I can record it. And it's nuclear."

"He's going to tell you to take one of the Daleks with you as a sample, in case the planet explodes. This was and still is a very bad idea." He shook his head.

"Were you going to say that?" Val switched glances between Zac and the man.

"Possibly…" he mumbled uncomfortably, "well it makes sense, this planet will struggle to contain its energy source and we need to teleport out, very soon."

"Told you, now last time you ignored me and caused a galactic catastrophe, well not you exactly, I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration. But your Prison decided that the blue print for the Dalek was almost perfect; they replicated them and sent them all over the galaxy as peace keepers, which in hindsight seemed like a good idea. They are the perfect followers. Trust me I know."

"So what went wrong?" She asked.

"You kept the original alive, and he waited like the intelligent killer he is." The man's expression became dark; Val could see angst and pain written all over his face. "He watched as you spread his soldiers across the Galaxy, calculating the perfect moment to strike, a moment when no-one was expecting it."

"Val, we have approximately one minute to get out of here, make a decision, we need to leave, if we return empty-handed we're going to get a mountain of paper work and possibly given Mechanics duties for a year or two."

"Tell me why I should trust you, and like my Hunter says, if we return empty-handed from a dying planet, our lives won't be worth living anyway."

"Because I know you're a good person Val Saunders, daughter to Mike and Sue, who by the way are pretty amazing people themselves; great apple pie and hot chocolate. I know you love Hawaiian Burgers and Superman is your favourite superhero. You have a very tight, yet attractive uniform," he raised a crooked smile, "but live for your time on Earth in jeans and Converse shoes. I had those in one of my regenerations; very comfortable." He glanced down at his boots, as if remembering a time long gone, then snapped back to the present. "There's nothing more I can say, the rest lies in your hands. Trust your instincts." He stepped back heading towards his blue box.

"Twenty seconds." Zac interrupted.

She had to make a decision fast and for some crazy reason she knew he was right. "Let's leave… now." she instructed.

"What?" Zac complained.

"I said let's go."

"Val," the man called to her as he opened the door to his phone box.

"Yes?"

"The reason you don't remember me is because you chose to have all the memories of our adventures together erased when I left you."

"Me and you? Adventures together?"

"Yes, but don't worry, we'll meet again." He saluted her.

"I think you'd better tell your name for next time?" she asked.

"Five seconds!" Zac grabbed her wrist.

"I'm the Doctor."

As they started to slip into their teleport she called out, "Dr Who?"


End file.
